Singaporean Chile Crab Recipes

Steps:

• Wash crabs and separate claws from body. Crack the shell and cut the body into 4 to 6 pieces.
• In a large bowl, mix together ketchup, water, cornstarch, and soy sauce.
• Heat skillet and the oil, stir in garlic and shallots. Fry the garlic and shallots for 1 to 2 minutes before adding the chili. Fry another 2 minutes. Add crab pieces and fry until they turn red, about 4 minutes.
• Stir sauce mixture into the skillet until the crabs are well coated. Cover the skillet and let simmer on high heat, for 7 minutes or until the shells turn bright red.
• Remove cover and stir in the lime juice. Stir in beaten egg until it is fully cooked. Turn the heat off and stir in green onions.

Steps:

• Pull the main shell off the crab and discard it. Remove the gray gills and the soft insides. Cut the body in half and then cut between each leg. Crack the legs and claws with the back of the knife or a hammer and set aside.
• In a bowl mix the ketchup, chili paste, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and tamarind paste; thin it with 1/4 cup water and set aside. Pour the oil into a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add the scallion, ginger, garlic, 1/2 the chile, and cilantro and cook for 1 minute. Add the crab and stir-fry for another minute. Pour in the sauce and continue cooking, stirring often, until the crab has absorbed the sauce and the sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes.
• Put onto a platter and garnish with the rest of the chile and cilantro. Serve with plenty of napkins!

Steps:

• Chili Crab Sauce:
• Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl (or 22-quart plastic Cambro containers, like we do) until it becomes one unified homogenous mixture of red chili sauce. It should taste spicy, sweet, and savory and not too ketchup-y.
• Prepare the crab:
• Clean crab and cut into pieces. If you have never done this before, this might sound easier said than done, but it's not nearly as daunting as it seems.
• In a debate of "humane" ways of killing crab: the Asian preparation of crab is a near-instant killing of the crab versus the longer and drawn out steaming/boiling method. Additionally, the boiling method tends to result in a much fishier "crabby" flavor, not as fresh tasting as with this method. If you look up videos on YouTube, look up "How to kill a live crab humanely," which will demonstrate this way of breaking down a crab.
• With that said, I wasn't as prepared in the photograph process, so I'm going to personally walk you through this as the first "Crab Killer" at Starry Kitchen:
• Quick tips: Put crabs in the freezer or refrigerator before breaking down. It will make them sleepy-slow them down very severely. There is also a way one of our cooks, Sean, uncovered on the web to gently pet a soft spot on their shell over and over and they'll start falling asleep. We've seen it. It's crazy, but it takes a lot longer than the freezer method.
• Next, when you're ready, you're going to need a decently sharp knife for this process or at least one with a sharp tip for this next step: try to grab the crab from the tail end, and flip the crab over, claws and eyes pointing away from you, and so it's belly-side up. If you look at its abdomen right in the center, you'll see a longer triangular lip (top of it pointing away from you) that can actually be lifted up. Until you're comfortable doing it often, you can use the tip of your knife to lift it up, but you'll want to use your hand to quickly just lift up and fold it over completely. The crab will potentially get VERY mad at this point. You've just exposed its most vulnerable spot.
• Then, this part is simple if you can move quickly: just stab it downward right through that spot that's been exposed until you reach the shell. Hold for about 10-20 seconds. The crab should die almost instantly.
• Afterwards, line your knife across the middle, and firmly press down and cleave it through the abdomen to cut the crab in half. The crab will snap in half once you come all the way down. You'll also be able to pull the crab by each of its claws, and it'll just come apart.
• You'll then want to turn each half over, and remove the white gills off of each and dispose.
• Dispose of the lip, and any other loose appendages from the front and back end of the crab.
• Dispose of the white film and any black matter inside the shell itself, but do not clean out the rest of the shell. That orange part, the coral, the fatty tissue is the MOST coveted part of the crab in Asian households (typically held for the father, no joke). It's like sea urchin/uni, really rich and very briny...and super-awesome to put rice into once it's cooked and scoop it out with. Yummers!
• Depending on how large your crab is, the two halves of crab legs can be broken into either 2 or 3 sections (there should be a minimum of 2 legs per section) using the same cleaving action as you did to halve the crab.
• And that's it! (If YouTube, this, and the web doesn't help you feel more comfortable-seriously, feel free to reach out to us: @starrykitchen. This dish is COMPLETELY worth it.)
• To make the Chili Crab:
• Now clean the crab legs again, then pat dry with paper towels. Put into a big bowl with cornstarch, but make sure to leave enough room to coat crab with starch.
• Diligently dredge all exposed crab pieces including the coral and head, inside and out, with starch. Next, shake off excess starch, but make sure all of the exposed (non-shelled) parts are covered in starch. This seals in all of the crab's flavors throughout the cooking process. This is especially important if you need to prepare in advance.
• Fill a wok/pot with 2 to 3 inches cooking oil, enough to submerge crab pieces, including the head. Heat oil to 350°F over high heat, then carefully fry in batches, arranging crab pieces in a single layer in the oil. Turn over pieces with tongs to fry evenly.
• When the crab pieces turn red all over and the battered parts are golden, remove and shake the excess oil over your pot. Set aside (we like to set crab on a rack/grate and baking sheet to allow a little bit more oil to drip off). Refrigerate for up to 24 hours.
• Once you're ready to make your chili crab, heat a wok/pan on high heat and add 1 tablespoon cooking oil per crab. Sauté garlic, shallots, ginger, and chiles until aromatic (enough to make you cough-that's how you know you got the GOOD stuff). Next, add the beautiful monstrosity that is your crab. Stir quickly for 10 to 15 seconds, then add Chili Crab Sauce. Cover, cook over high heat, and cook that bad boy (or girl) for 7 minutes.
• Keep the pan over heat, but remove crab from pan and place on a serving dish. While reconstructing your sea beast, make sure to leave all the sauce in the wok/pan. Crack eggs into the sauce, and quickly mix to fully incorporate them and thicken the sauce. Increase to high heat and reduce sauce to desired thickness. (I like it pretty thick and a little bit gloppy GOOD.) Once done, remove from heat, and pour sauce all over the crab. Garnish with chopped scallions and cilantro. Serve with Buttermilk Beer Beignets. Break down the crab, sop up all that sauce, and eat like a Singaporean king!

Steps:

• The crab must be prepared before stir-frying (you can ask your fishmonger to do this). This involves removing the claws, the main shell, discarding the dead man's fingers, then cutting the body into four pieces, and cracking the claws and the legs so the sauce can get through to the meat.
• Heat the oil in a large wok and sizzle the garlic, ginger and chopped chillies for 1 min or until fragrant. Add the ketchup, soy and 100ml water, and stir to combine. Throw in the crab, turn up the heat and stir-fry for 3-5 mins or until the crab is piping hot and coated in the sauce. Stir through most of the coriander, spring onions and sliced chilli.
• Use tongs to arrange the crab on a serving dish, pour over the sauce from the pan and scatter over the remaining coriander, spring onions and sliced chilli. Serve with rice or bao buns, and a lot of napkins.

Steps:

• Prepare the crab by removing the base flap, then pull off the head and clear out the cavity. Keep the head in a bowl. Moving to the body of the crab, remove the gills, which are an opaque brown colour on both sides of the crab. Using a sharp knife, cut the crab in half down the middle, then divide into six parts. Using the knife, crack the crab legs open to allow the flavours to enhance while cooking. Add to the bowl with the head then set aside.
• In a food processor, add shallots, ginger, red chillies, garlic, ketchup, and shrimp paste, then pulse until it comes together and forms a paste.
• Heat oil in a wok over medium heat, then once it comes up to temperature fry add the chilli paste and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the crab pieces into the wok and stir until they are fully coated. Give the crab time to start turning orange, approximately 5 minutes.
• Add the tomato puree, chicken stock, rice wine vinegar, sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce and palm sugar, then stir until completely mixed. The crab should be fully orange by now. Add a lid on top and allow the mixture to simmer for 15 minutes.
• Remove the crab legs and head, and plate up on a shallow dish.
• Add butter, spring onions, and egg. Let the egg sit for a minute before stirring, then give the sauce a quick stir. The sauce should thicken up quickly.
• Pour the sauce on top of the crab and garnish with a few sprigs of coriander.
• Enjoy!

Steps:

• Whisk ketchup, chicken broth, egg, soy sauce, chile-garlic sauce, oyster sauce, tamarind paste, fish sauce, and palm sugar together in a bowl.
• Stir shallots, garlic, oil, ginger, and serrano pepper together in a pot over medium-high heat. Saute until sizzling, about 2 minutes. Add crab to pot, cover the pot with a lid, and shake until crab is completely coated in shallot mixture. Remove lid and cook and stir until heated through, about 3 minutes.
• Pour ketchup mixture into pot, reduce heat to medium, and cook and stir until sauce thickens and crab is hot about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cilantro and green onions.

Steps:

• Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
• In a very large pot of boiling water, parboil the crab for 3 minutes. Take out of the water and drain. Rinse the crab with cold water and drain again.
• Pull off the top shell in one piece and reserve for additional garnish.
• Remove and discard the gills and the spongy parts under the shell.
• Twist off the claws and legs; crack them with a cleaver or a mallet. Now cut the body into 4 pieces.
• Now in a large heated wok, add oil and swirl to coat the sides of the wok. add the garlic, ginger, and chili, and stir fry for 1 minute.
• Add the crab, and stir fry an additional 2 minutes. Now add the sauce, reducing the heat to low. Cover and simmer, stirring once or twice, till the crab is cooked (6-7 minutes).
• Finally stir in the egg and cook just until it begins to set (1 minute).
• Arrange the crab and top shell on a large platter. Pour the sauce all over the crab and garnish with the green onion.
• Serve right away with crusty bread to soak up the sauce.

Steps:

• Clean the crabs.
• Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet and stir fry the onion, ginger, garlic, lemon grass, shrimp paste (if using) and two-thirds of the chillies for two minutes.
• Add the crab and boiling water, reduce the heat and cook 8 minutes longer. Transfer the crab to a plate.
• Chop the crabs into 4 to 6 pieces with a large cleaver, leaving the legs attached. Crack the claws with a mallet or pestle.
• Mix the cornstarch into a little cold water.
• Add the sugar and tomato paste to the wok and combine well.
• Add the cornstarch solution and continue stirring until the mixture thickens.
• Add the lightly beaten egg, stir continuously to form small tiny strands.
• Return the crab to the wok, stirring until well-coated with the sauce.
• Place on a serving platter and garnish with the green onions and remaining chillies.
• Serve hot.